RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r 156 BENHAM, Miss M. E. M. - Harcourt Health Centre, Morrison Hill Rd., BERTOVICH, Miss R. C. BIRNBAUM, Mrs. S. D. BLACK, D. BLACK, Mrs. W. A. BLACKMORE, M. BLATCHFORD, C. H. BLUNDEN, Prof. E. C. BOAK, C. D. BOARD, D. B. M.* BOLLMEYER, Mrs. H. BONSALL, G. W. BORGEEST, G. BOXER, B. BOYD, J. D. I. BRAGA, J. M. BREUIL, Mrs. N. du BROMHALL, J. D. BROOKS, D. E. BROWNE, H. J. C. BRUNN, F. BUCKNELL, P. BYRNE, D. J. H.K. R.D. No. 1, Box 220, Masontown, Pa. U.S.A. 7, Braga Circuit, Kowloon. Long Acre, Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland. 10-A, Stanley Beach Road, Stanley, H.K. Dept. of History, H.K. University, H.K. New Asia College, 6 Farm Road, Kowloon. H.K. University, Pokfulum, H.K. Dept. of Modern Languages, H.K. University, H.K. c/o Education Dept., Battery Path, H.K. 408/9 Yu To Sang Building, 37 Queen's Road, C., H.K. H.K. University Library, Pokfulum, H.K. P. O. Box 1058, H.K. 2, Percival Street, 3rd floor, H.K. c/o Political Adviser, Colonial Secretariat, H.K. P. O. Box 951, H.K. 86, Main Street, Stanley, H.K. Fisheries Research Station, The Fish Market, Island Road, Aberdeen, H.K. Radio Hong Kong, Mercury House, H.K. c/o Butterfield & Swire, Union House, H.K. 908 Takshing House, H.K. Legal Dept. Central Govt. Offices, H.K. BURKHARDT, Col. V. R. 86, Main Street, Stanley, H.K. CALCINA, P. G.* CAMERON, N. CASHMORE, Miss M. CHAN, Fook-Lam CHAN, Dr. Hee Chi P. O. Box 15118, H.K Commercial Investment Co., Ltd., Union House, 12th floor, H.K. 75, Deepwater Bay Road, H.K. 9A, Cameron House, 40 Magazine Gap Road, H.K. 77 Chun Yeung Street, 10th floor, H.K. Bank of Canton Building, H.K. * Life Member Please notify the Hon Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 transferred their activities elsewhere: the evil reputation of Bias Bay nearby is well known. But British influence made itself felt in other ways, too. The "foreign devils" not only brought security; they built houses, roads and dockyards, so that a very large number of Chinese found Hongkong preferable to their native districts and came there to live. By 1938 the population was over two millions, including twenty-four thousand foreigners. It is true, of the Chinese no less than one million were only transient inhabitants, refugees from the Japanese wrath which was spreading over China. To these wretched thousands, Hongkong, for a time, was a sanctuary: as later in another part of the world, was England to the French, Belgian, Dutch and Norwegian refugees, who were to escape from German occupied territory. Behind Victoria, the cramped commercial hub of the island, a funicular Peak Tramway rises steeply to serve the numerous mansions, erected at varying levels, for taipans, who hope vainly to avoid the moist clinging heat of the long Hongkong summer. Some of the mansions look out over Victoria at the twin city of Kowloon on the mainland across the harbour: others, on the reverse slope, look out to sea, to Lantao island, still barren, to Lamma, in the foreground, and to Cheung Chau in the middle distance. Hongkong was crowded. The hotels were full and so when we arrived, some weeks after leaving Nanking, my wife and I took rooms at the small hotel which an enterprising English couple had opened on Cheung Chau island. A special ferry from Victoria did the trip several times a day in about half an hour. There was quite a large fishing village, the rendezvous for many of the junks that frequent these waters. We lived on fish and strolled amongst the stunted pines and the empty bungalows of the summer visitors waiting until we could find more convenient accommodation. It was a pleasant change from the vicissitudes of Nanking. Eventually we were able to get rooms in the Repulse Bay Hotel, famous as a honeymoon resort. It is on the side of Hongkong facing the open sea, near what is perhaps the best known bathing beach. A winding road over the hill through the Wong Nei Chong gap leads to Victoria, and in Deepwater Bay round the point there is a small nine-hole golf course. I remember one day we took the bus up to the Gap and got out ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 293 BOOK REVIEW Gillian Bickley (2201), Hong Kong Invaded! A '97 Nightmare, with a foreword by Arthur Gomes, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 303 pages. A97NIGHTMARE In 1897, a series of anonymous articles appeared in the China Mail. Together they constituted a story entitled The Back Door. This was a fictional account of a successful invasion of Hong Kong by the combined forces of fin-de-siècle aggressors, France and Russia. The inference is that the author was perturbed that Hong Kong's defences at the time were inadequate and so, in an attempt to galvanise the authorities, wrote this "wake up call." Copies of the story ultimately found their way to Whitehall in London. Gillian Bickley As the title of the story infers, the superior invading forces entered Hong Kong by way of the south side of Hong Kong Island. There was the bloody Battle of Deepwater Bay, fought in "the jungle" around the Golf Club and on the beach. There was shelling of the Peak from the sea and the sea battle of Sulphur Channel. Matters neared their end when the enemy captured the Kowloon Forts and the dynamite and gunpowder stored on Stonecutters' Island were fired. At the last stand, on Stonecutters', the defenders were ultimately annihilated. The Back Door evidently arose from the same anxiety that drove Britain's negotiations with China; concluded in 1898 when China granted the ninety-nine year lease of the New Territories, which Britain had requested as a protective buffer against attack. Gillian Bickley discovered a copy of this story some years ago and it evidently fired her imagination, probably because as we all know, Hong Kong was invaded on 8th December, 1941, by the Japanese - also by superior forces - and ultimately capitulated on Christmas day. The Japanese, however, entered Hong Kong from the north, through the New Territories. Had the Japanese, she wonders, read The Back Door? ================================================================================